PicoBlog

On January 11, 2024, NISA announced their newest expansion club into the league: Georgia Lions FC. NISA Executive Vice President Josh Prutch vouched for the new team as an “established organization that is well-led, well-run, and well-connected in the community”. And at the time of the announcement, every indication from the club seemed to prove that he was correct. The club grew from the East Atlanta Dutch Lions USL2 club, previously East Atlanta FC, in Conyers, Georgia. Set to play on the Rockdale Youth Soccer Association (RYSA) fields, they were tied in strongly to the academy that they first invested in before the pro initiative.

However, the team’s new launch did not go to plan at all. Rumors of financial difficulties and mismanagement plagued both the pro team and the RYSA as they caused the NISA season to be delayed (along with 3 other teams) due to failing to finish filling out their roster. Then, there was a sudden change in branding to Georgia Lions SC and rumors of a complete relocation to Dalton, Georgia. After that, the team had to shockingly forfeit the first round of the U.S. Open Cup. And finally, after months of questions and turmoil, everything was seemingly fixed. NISA announced that the league took control of the club and the team rebranded again to their current identity of Georgia FC. They moved into Silverbacks Park in Atlanta with a new front office set-up, finally putting a roster together and now participating in the NISA season.

What happened to the Georgia Lions? Why did they go through so many changes before even seeing the field? Well, it’s a long story, and we have to start from the beginning. To figure out how the club survived 3 rebrands, 2 relocations, a financial disaster, and an abandoning ownership group while leaving a youth club behind in ruins, we need to talk about one of their original owners, Mr. Patrick Vierhout.

Patrick Vierhout is a Dutch businessman who is the owner of the Sportiff apparel company. He was a member of the Dutch Lions organization, a group of men’s and women’s clubs located across the United States and which was an initial minority ownership group in FC Cincinnati when they entered the USL. The Dutch Lions have multiple clubs in the USL2 and NPSL, among other leagues, and are a well-respected organization, but they only give their branding to teams in the U.S. and don’t control the teams directly. Vierhout, working for them at the time, bought the USL2 club East Atlanta FC and transformed them into the East Atlanta Dutch Lions.

East Atlanta FC plays on the fields of the Rockdale Youth Soccer Association (RYSA) in Conyers, Georgia. When Mr. Vierhout came into acquisition of a majority stake in East Atlanta, he also bought the RYSA (in February 2023), promising many incredible projects to coaches, parents, and players of the academy. His first promise was to get the club out of their existing debt and spend $5 million on other projects. These projects included replacing their indoor facility with a state-of-the-art venue, paving the club parking lot, improving field lighting, and adding two turf pitches. Along with the improvement promises, he planned to build a 10,000 seat soccer stadium (mainly for a pro women’s team, but also for the men’s team) at the Georgia International Horse Park in a development similar to the Battery at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves of MLB. The future was bright for the RYSA and East Atlanta Dutch Lions, until it wasn’t in December 2023.

On December 11, 2023, staff at East Atlanta Dutch Lions had their contracts terminated by the payroll company working with the club. This was because the payroll company hadn’t been paid by the owner (Vierhout). Staff stopped receiving payment on December 14. Staff were told for weeks by club leaders that they would be paid, that all would be fixed in “24-48 hours”, and to contact Sunita Patel (NISA owner, remember her for later) instead of the Dutch Lions and RYSA financial officer Tripp Carroll (remember him, too). Patel failed to respond to club employees. Staff were also told to stop complaining and quit if unhappy, which many did, including board members and the director of soccer operations.

In an interview with atlantasoccer.news (article:https://atlantasoccer.news/a-failed-contract-has-catastrophically-damaged-the-youth-soccer-program-in-rockdale/), Vierhout said through email from the Netherlands that the nonpayment of employees was due to an American investor’s inability to deliver the promised funds because of “banking issues”. He also said that the funds should be available by March 15. It is unknown if he did repay what he owed.

The financial problems would continue. All the promises of facility improvements never came to fruition. The deal for the Georgia International Horse Park, costing $7.2 million after Vierhout negotiated with the city of Conyers, fell through after he didn’t pay $716,425 in earnest money by the agreed-upon date. The debts the clubs owed to banks totaling $389,053 that Vierhout agreed to cover were not paid and went into forclosure. The RYSA have sued Vierhout over this and the mismanagement of the club’s assets (assets totaling over $400,000). Along with these issues, Vierhout never came into a deal with the club’s Board of Trustee’s for the land the RYSA owned, so the board served him and Tripp Carroll eviction papers on December 22, 2023 and were waiting for the Sheriff’s Department to formally evict the club. It is unknown by our sources if the eviction process is complete. The fields also threatened to have their electricity cut by the power provider due to not being paid.

While all of this was going on, parents of the RYSA ordered $500 uniforms from Vierhout’s business, Sportiff apparel, but they never received jerseys or refunds after delivery promises in December and January weren’t followed through. Sportiff USA and Vierhout received a cease and desist from another U.S. clothing brand, Sportif (with one f).

Not only were there no jersey refunds, many families had already signed up their kids to play for the RYSA and didn’t get refunds. Tripp Carroll (the financial advisor) subsequently held their player releases hostage, meaning kids couldn’t move to another club until they had paid in full. An anonymous source explained the situation: “Since Tripp was an admin and the league administrator for the academy players registered in Georgia soccer, he ultimately had to release players on his end. By academy, I mean the u12 and under age groups. However, Tripp held player releases hostage if they had not paid in full for both seasons. Most families are on payment plans due to the cost. My understanding is that he has now also resigned to try and not have to take any blame, despite the fact that his name was on everything”. Our source wasn’t 100% sure if he had officially resigned, but he had stopped going into the club’s office.

What else was Carroll’s name on? His name was tied to the business license and house that housed two Dutch kids (ages in low-mid 20s, names kept anonymous) who illegally helped with the club’s youth program and social media. It was illegal because the two kids were not paid for their work nor were they made to complete their Safesport and background checks to work with kids. The house Carroll “owned” also housed Mr. Vierhout when he visited Conyers from the Netherlands. Finally, Carroll is/was an employee of Vierhout’s with Sportiff apparel.

The story of the Georgia Lions started before they even formed with complete destruction of a long-standing youth academy. What had happened to parents, players, and staff of the RYSA due to Vierhout and Carroll’s actions is cruel, ridiculous, and in some ways illegal. Yet, amidst the chaos they created, Vierhout and company would start a new initiative when NISA entered the fray.

Vierhout had attempted to get approval for a USL pro franchise, presumably promoting the East Atlanta Dutch Lions, but the USL didn’t allow it. So, he turned to a different pro league with cheaper entrance fees and in need of teams: NISA. When NISA met with the Lion’s proposed ownership group to see if they were fit for a pro franchise, they probably didn’t know that the club was doomed from the start, only meeting with Patrick Vierhout two times. Instead, they often met with the other owner, Sunita Patel, who they loved. Ms. Patel is the owner of the Hawthorn Suites hotel in Conyers, Georgia and made the Lions the first Indian women-owned pro club in the U.S. She joined forces with Vierhout under the promises that Vierhout would build her cricket fields and make her a pro franchise owner. While he did make her a pro franchise owner, our sources have told us that she was tricked and manipulated to bail Vierhout out because of these promises. This aligns with what Commissioner Prutch of NISA said in an interview with Soccer Down Here on April 5.

So, with Patel as the forefront of the Lions and covering for the concerns related to Vierhout, NISA went along with introducing the team to the league. The team planned to play on the fields of the RYSA, even though eviction papers on the fields were filed 2-3 weeks before the initial announcement. Not being aware of any of the information we know now, Beyond the 90 attempted to reach out to a club representative to discuss the club’s launch and plans for the future. The club representative we came in contact with was Tripp Carroll. Mr. Carroll agreed to allow for us to send interview questions towards him and Sunita Patel, yet they never gave us answers. However, the most important thing we learned from our discussion with Mr. Carroll was his revealing statement, “Patrick (Vierhout) is in no way an owner”.

It was true; Mr. Vierhout was removed from NISA ownership behind the scenes due to his financial situation. He had also been removed from East Atlanta Dutch Lions ownership, first because Vierhout had a falling out with the Dutch Lions organization and second because he never went through the proper legal channels to secure full ownership of the USL2 club. Therefore, the club’s secondary owners, Sam Walker and Kelly Shirah, regained control and returned to the East Atlanta FC branding. While it is presumed Vierhout also was removed from RYSA ownership, the only way he could lose that status is if the club board had voted him out, and our sources do not know the members of the club board or if the vote has taken place.

With Vierhout out of the equation, Sunita Patel was left as the sole owner of the Georgia Lions, but she had to recover from what happened between her and Vierhout. With Vierhout also presumably being the main source of funding for the franchise, NISA had to temporarily take over ownership of the club. Ms. Patel hopes to take over club ownership again in the future, but a decision on her long-term future will be made in the next few months by the league (according to Commissioner Prutch). With the eviction from the RYSA fields looming, NISA relocated Georgia Lions FC to Dalton, Georgia, about two hours north of Atlanta and Conyers, and rebranded the club to Georgia Lions SC, with a red, white, black, and gold color scheme placed on top of the existing logo that had a blue, orange, and white scheme.

Dalton is where the team conducted their tryouts. However, their roster construction was taking so long that they withdrew from the first round of the U.S. Open Cup on March 18, 2024, rocking the soccer world and making the majority of American lower-league soccer fans aware of the team’s dire situation. The roster construction problems (combined with other NISA teams struggling to field a roster in time) also meant that NISA had to delay the start of their regular season.

Things still weren’t looking good for the team with NISA in control, but on April 3, the league announced a reorganization of the club’s front office, bringing a third rebrand to Georgia FC (logo at beginning of article), a second relocation to Silverbacks Park, a soccer-specific stadium in Atlanta formerly of the Atlanta Silverbacks (past USL and NASL member), and the hiring of of a Club Director of Business Operations and Sporting Director.

The Director of Business Operations is Preston Jarneski, the CEO and co-founder of Tekkers Performance Lab, a group looking to advance soccer training through state-of-the-art technology. Before taking over club operations, he had a role working with Patrick Vierhout at Sportiff and spoke to club members in an official capacity when Vierhout was still the owner. However, sources in touch with Jarneski told BT90 on February 1 that he had cut off all ties with Sportiff and Vierhout. Beyond the 90’s request for interview with Mr. Jarneski, mainly to discuss his relationship with Mr. Vierhout and the future of the club, was accepted, but we are waiting on his answers.

The Sporting Director is Karem “Coach K” Daser, the founder/CEO of North Georgia Soccer Academy based in Dalton. While Georgia FC have played the majority of their home games at Silverbacks Park, they played one match (May 11, 4-1 win over the Michigan Stars) in Dalton at the special request of Coach K. This is because the coach wanted his academy kids to experience and watch the professional game. The team will continue to play the occasional game in Dalton throughout the season.

Now, with the new front office, the club has gotten off the ground, putting together a very solid roster led by Patrick Okonkwo. They’ve played 7 games in NISA, going 2-1-4 to sit on 7 points and at 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. While barely any fans attend their games, and not many people are aware of their existence after the unstable launch, the fact that they got off the ground at all is a huge positive to build off of. And, as NISA offers the team to potential investors and owners, there is hope left that the club will be saved and that this season wasn’t a fluke. While there is still instability, it is nothing in comparison to the club’s problems that have come before. If a club can survive a faulty owner, another being manipulated, a financial advisor breaking Georgia Soccer and moral law, 2 relocations, and 3 rebrands, why can’t one hope for future survival?

Meanwhile, we try not to forget the Rockdale Youth Soccer Association. While East Atlanta FC have recovered, the long-lasting academy that suffered the most from this story is on the brink of collapse unless the lawsuits versus Mr. Vierhout go in their favor. We pray that they in fact do go in their favor and that the RYSA can continue to give an opportunity to kids in the Conyers area to play soccer. They do not deserve what Patrick Vierhout bestowed upon them.

The future may be murky, but one can always hold hope. So too will we hold hope for the RYSA and Georgia FC.

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